Twilight 2: NEW MOON (spoilers)

THE TWLIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON is, for me, and on the whole, 100 times better than the first movie. Admittedly, I can't really stand the book series. I tried to read the first one and had a lot of trouble staying awake and keeping my interest going. I didn't like the style of writing, found it boring, and found the two main characters so self absorbed...and the same thing can be said about the first movie. What drove me to this one was the hint of more action (the movie delivers this), a better plot (the movie delivers this), and the most attractive cast in creation (the movie delivers this although I wish Cameron Bright was in more of the movie). Cameron has been in sci fi before from a movie where he was a clone of himself to a movie where a female superhero has to save him in the future to a movie where Nicole Kidman is in love with him because he's a reincarnated husband!

In any event, the movie is visually attractive, too. The brights are bright, the waters blue and/or gray, the hair red as blood, and the muscle bulging. The Italy scenes are strange but colorful and yet somehow feel tagged on to the rest but that's not a bad thing: they are suprising and somehow more romantic than the entire first movie. The fights are better but I still feel that Edward is a wimpy vampire: he's always getting his butt kicked by someone or something. On the other hand, Jacob Black, despite the move he made that could have made Edward kill himself---and one of the big flaws in this movie and the books is that both Bela and Edward advocate suicide and/or suicidal moves (Bela tries to get into more and more dangerous situations so she can hear from Edward's inner ghost or soul or whatever that was)...Black is an impressive character. The shirtless look aside, Taylor Lautner is up to the challenge. In fact, all the acting in this is better than the first movie.

The interaction between the characters and the various cults or groups of monsters is fresh as it revolves around Edward and Bela's love for each other and the reactions to the love that was spawned in the first movie. Victoria is an excellent villain; Paul a dangerous as hell werewolf. What happened to Quim? Was he a werewolf too? The Voltaire or whatever they are called are deliously creepy and powerful and dangerous but at times, I thought maybe they were good guys! The balance of that is well done.

Everyone is played just right even the selfish Bela and Edward, this time Edward not being that selfish but Bela just over the top in self centeredness. The months passing scene is well done and cinemascoped; the emails to Alice nice, the tension and fun quips between Alice and Jacob funny; the phone call unexpected (you have to know which phone call), the death unexpected, and the CGI werewolves not as bad as I thought they were going to be.

All in all, from this, I'd go see the third movie but as yet I have no inclination to read any of the books. In any event, this was a four star movie out of five whereas for me the first movie was something of a 2 or even a 1. It was really boring but this sequel is anything but boring, visually and music wise it is very, very good.